Thursday, February 07, 2008

Renewing My Vows

I’ve blogged a lot about my commitment to bringing up baby in the city. We’ve had a couple of nasty incidents in my ‘hood lately, so I needed a reminder why I love Toronto. Luckily, I have an out of town guest this week who always gets me out doing things, instead of hibernating with a book all the time.

Her first day in town, we caught the closing night of the Soulpepper production of Salt Water Moon. It was just lovely. It was a ninety-minute, one act play, with just two (very young!) actors. They were excellent. Soulpepper’s now at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts in the Distillery District. If you haven’t made it to the Distillery yet, you have to go. It’s just fabulous. We stopped for a pint at the Mill Street Brewery before the show (they make delicious organic beer) and there are lots of great looking restaurants.

The next night, we went for martinis at my favourite haunt, Barrio, then took advantage of Winterlicious. We chose a place in my ‘hood I’ve always wanted to try, Edward Levesque’s Kitchen. I had the lamb and Chris had the steak--they were both to die for. I can’t believe it took me three years to get there (we’ve never made it further east than Gio’s).

Saturday night McHotty and I celebrated my new job with dinner at Barrio, then we caught The Weakerthans free concert at Nathan Phillips Square. There was also a fire installation in the square that was absolutely stunning. Here’s some pics...

My crappy camera doesn’t do it justice—there are some better pics at the WinterCity website, here.

After the show, we had a nightcap at The Comrade, one of the new nightspots at Queen and Broadview. Great place--gorgeous décor, cool tunes, and nice selection of drinks (including some Belgian beers. Mmmm).

Sunday morning I took a friend for brunch, back to Barrio again. They had some plumbing problems over Christmas and lost all their holiday bookings, so go help them out!

After a solid week of fun in Toronto my faith is restored—we won’t be fleeing for the ‘burbs anytime soon.

I love that I am in walking distance to many things. I love grocery shopping at 11 PM after the kids are asleep. The diversity that the city offers and pockets of communities are divine. Of course the friends in Toronto are swell too!